


Stand Under My Umbrella

by Gamzee_Makaraoni



Series: Aradia Week 2016 [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Aradia Week 2016, Best Friends, Childhood Friends, First Meetings, Friendship, Gen, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Platonic Relationships, Pre-Sburb/Sgrub, Rain, Sharing an umbrella, Umbrellas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-26
Updated: 2016-10-26
Packaged: 2018-08-24 15:40:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8377762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gamzee_Makaraoni/pseuds/Gamzee_Makaraoni
Summary: When Aradia had gone out to the ruins that day, she had expected to find treasure buried in the ground. What she hadn't expected to find was a new friend.-For Aradia Week Day 3: Relationships.





	

_The strange creature in front of her snarled, eyes lighting up with a green fire._

_"You think you can stop Lord English? He devours worlds, galaxies, universes. One army of dead people isn't going to stop him!"_

_She reached out with her claws-_

* * *

Something dripped onto Aradia's face, waking her up from her dream. She blinked sleepily and rubbed at her eyes, the faintest details of the dream fading away. There were strange creatures, a blast of red, a girl's cackle-

_Plip._

Another droplet of water landed on her face, jerking her out of her thoughts. Aradia looked up at the sky to see dark clouds rolling in, obscuring the moon and the stars. "Oh! I promised Rammom I'd be back before it started raining!" she gasped, slapping a hand to her face. "I need to get home!" She grabbed her shovel and stuffed it in her bag before running off.

Fortunately, Aradia hadn't wandered too far into the ruins when she went exploring, but without the light of the moon it was difficult to navigate through. She found herself tripping multiple times on stone and dirt. Perhaps she should have let Rammom come with her...

Aradia shook her head. She was four sweeps old now, she could handle herself! She was desperate to prove this to her lusus. Just because she sat at the bottom of the hemospectrum didn't mean she wasn't feeble or weak. She moved faster, determination running through her.

After some time, she found herself at the edge of the ruins. Without the stone buildings overhead to provide some cover, the rain came down harder. Aradia opened her bag and fumbled around for her umbrella. Feeling its handle, she tugged it out and opened it with a whoosh. Now sheltered from the rain, she moved forward down the path that would lead around to her hive.

"Um, hello?"

The sudden voice made Aradia jumped. "Who's there?!" she yelped. Panicked, she yanked out her shovel and whirled around.

"Whoa!" The boy standing in front of her stumbled back, hands raised in surrender. He didn't seem to be much older than she was. His hair was shaved off where his horns came out of his head. The symbol on his shirt was light brown-he was a brownblood. "I'm-I'm awfully sorry to have startled you."

Relaxing, Aradia lowered her shovel. It didn't look like he was going to hurt her. "Oh, it's alright. I'm just a little nervous about getting back to my hive on time. Did you need something?"

"Well, you see, my lusus and I were exploring the forest nearby, and we forgot to bring an umbrella. Would you, uh, mind sharing with us?"

Aradia started chewing on her lip as she thought it over. She knew strangers could be dangerous, but this boy didn't seem like the fearsome trolls her lusus would warn her about. And she couldn't just leave him out in the rain, especially if it started to rain harder. "Okay. Where's your lusus?"

At her words, a lusus flew out from behind the boy. It was shaped like a miniature male moobeast, except it had tiny wings. "This is Tinkerbull," the boy said.

"Oh, good, I was afraid he might be too big for the umbrella. Do you guys live nearby?"

"Uh, I think we're a few miles away from here."

Aradia glanced up at the sky. The clouds had only grown angrier in appearance since the last time she looked. "My hive isn't too far from here. If the rain gets worse, you can stay there until it clears out."

The boy's face brightened. "Oh, thank you!" He slipped under the umbrella with Aradia, nearly hitting it with his horns. "Oh, sorry!"

"It's all right, I'm a bit clumsy myself," Aradia assured him. Tinkerbull flew under the umbrella, floating between the two. "I'm Aradia Megido. What's your name?"

"I'm Tavros Nitram."

"It's very nice to meet you, Tavros! The path to my hive is this way. Let's hurry before the rain gets worse!" She started to walk down the path, making sure Tinkerbull and Tavros were covered by her umbrella. "So, what brings you two out here to the ruins?"

"Well, one of my friends got into something called FLARPing. Have you heard of it?" Aradia shook her head. "It stands for Fatal Live Action Roleplaying. She's organizing a group of people to play, and we all decided to explore near our hives for possible playing sites. I guess me and Tinker went a little too far, though."

"The forest is pretty easy to lose track of time in. So are the ruins. My lusus often has to drag me back to my hive before the sun comes up!"

Tavros giggled. "So what were you doing in the ruins?"

"I was exploring them. I can find a lot of interesting stuff there if I dig deep enough."

"Did you find anything today?"

"No." Aradia sighed. "I was hoping to, but I got tired and I fell asleep while digging. The rain woke me up."

"Where's your lusus?"

"Rammom is at home. I wanted to try exploring by myself today, but that didn't work out."

"Hey, I'm sure you'll find something next time."

Aradia smiled at Tavros. "Yeah, maybe. Next time, I could invite you along!"

His eyes lit up. "Really? We could explore together, like-like Pupa Pan and his Lost Grubs?"

"Yeah! We'll find a pirate ship and fly away!" Aradia pumped her fist into the air. "And we'll stop the evil Captain Claw!"

"No pirate is going to steal Alternia's magic!" Tavros cheered.

"That's the spirit!"

The two continued to walk and talk, until they reached Aradia's hive. By then, the rain had lessened, but it was still coming down.

Tavros glanced hesitantly at Aradia's door. "Oh, I don't want to intrude. I mean, we've only just met."

Aradia waved him off. "No, no! It's fine! You can stay as long as you need!"

"Um, what if the rain doesn't let up until the sun comes out?"

"Then you can sleep in-oh." Aradia bit her lip. "I don't think my 'coon can fit another person, and I only have one."

"I can get home from here. Thank you, Aradia, you don't need to come with me to my hive-"

"Here!" Aradia shoved her umbrella into Tavros's hands. He staggered back at the sudden move. "Take it."

"I-what?"

"Take it home with you." Aradia fumbled with her door knob. "It's still raining. You need it more than I do."

"But-but it's yours! How will I get it back to you?"

"You could contact me on Trollian." The door finally opened, and Aradia slipped inside. She turned around to face Tavros. "What's your troll tag?"

"It's-uh, it's adiosToreador."

"I'm apopcalypseArisen. I'll message you in an hour or two, so I know you got home safely. Okay?"

Tavros nodded. "It was really nice to meet you, Aradia."

"It was nice to meet you too, Tavros. I hope we get to hang out again!" Aradia waved.

Tinkerbull buzzed, and Tavros waved back. He started to walk down the path that led to the grassy hills a mile away from Aradia's hive. She closed the door and turned around, stretching her arms out. Rammom stirred in her nest, humming blearily at Aradia.

"Hi, Rammom!" She skipped over to give her lusus a hug. "I made a new friend today! I'll tell you about it after I take a bath and get all the dirt out, so you can continue sleeping. I love ya!" Rammom hummed again and settled back into her blankets. Aradia walked into her refresher and started the water for a bath.

After her bath, Aradia walked out of her room, rubbing a towel in her hair. It had started to grow out from her previous short cut, now falling to her chin. The downside was that it became harder to wash and dry, but she didn't mind very much. Tossing it aside, she opened up her grubtop and searched for "adiosToreador" on the server directory. One user popped up, and she began to type out a message.

> **apopcalypseArisen [AA] has began trolling adiosToreador [AT]**
> 
> **AA: hi tavros! i hope you got home okay**
> 
> **AT: hI aRADIA**
> 
> **AT: i DID GET HOME OKAY,,,tHANK YOU FOR ASKING**
> 
> **AA: glad to hear it!**

This, Aradia decided, was the start to a beautiful friendship.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, thank you for reading my fic!  
> I wrote this for Aradia Week 2016. I'm so glad that there's a week dedicated to this lovely character! I'll hopefully be participating for the rest of the week.  
> You can find me on tumblr at gaydrienagreste. I hope you enjoyed this fic!


End file.
